Posts Tagged ‘Drama’

Friday’s Featured Film – 7/2/10

D.J. Williams | July 2, 2010 in Movies | Comments (0)

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New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

The Last Samurai

Tom Cruise’s new movie, Knight and Day, opened last week to a lackluster box office take.  Many have speculated that it’s because Cruise doesn’t click as well with audiences anymore after his antics over the last ten years.  However, while he may have gotten crazier with time, he’s also become a better and better actor, and seeing his name in the news got me thinking about my all-time favorite Cruise film, the historical fiction epic The Last Samurai.  Director Edward Zwick does his finest work in the tale of the dying of a way of life in 19th-century Japan and the rebirth it gave to a broken American soldier.

Cruise stars as Captain Nathan Algren, a washed-up drunk of a former American soldier haunted by his brutality in the Indian Wars.  In need of money, Algren accepts a job offer from a wealthy Japanese businessman (Masato Harada) to train the Japanese Imperial Army in modern military methods and tactics.  Japan is modernizing, and an army is needed to put down the rebellion of the Samurai warrior Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), who is fighting to hold onto the Samurai code even as it is outlawed in the name of modernity.  Algren accepts the job, but when his army is rushed into battle too quickly by his superiors, he is wounded and captured by Katusmoto’s forces.  As he lives among the Samurai, he is enchanted by their ways and must reevaluate what side will have his allegiance in the coming battle. 

Cruise delivers one of his finest performances in a role that at first seems out of place for him.  This isn’t flashy, Mission: Impossible-style Tom Cruise, but an actor who does a tremendous job subtly portraying a man going through a total character transformation.  Watanabe, however, completely steals the show as Katsumoto, launching his career in the states and garnering an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.  The film covers familiar thematic ground (the honor of the old ways and the pressing progress of modernity) but does so in an unfamiliar setting, which helps avoid any sense of cliche and takes us into a fascinating period of history that Hollywood really hasn’t spent much time in.  The film, while not a true story, is inspired by real-life people and conflicts that shaped Japan during the latter half of the 1800s.  Zwick, who has helmed other epics like Glory and Defiance that featured both intimate character portraits and vast scope, is right at home here and gives us a movie that is as captivating in its quiet conversations as it is in its grand battle sequences (which are riveting).  Composer Hans Zimmer adds what I believe to be his best musical work, and the whole package comes together as film that’s simply a must-see.  Exciting and moving, tragic and redemptive, The Last Samurai is a truly remarkable film.  If you’re looking for something to watch over the holiday weekend, you won’t go wrong here. – **** (out of 4)

The Last Samurai is rated R for strong violence and battle sequences.

Friday’s Featured Film – 5/28/10

D.J. Williams | May 28, 2010 in Movies | Comments (0)

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New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Flags of Our Fathers

For Memorial Day weekend, I’m reviewing Clint Eastwood’s 2008 war film Flags of Our Fathers, which I got the chance to see just a few weeks ago.  The movie, based on the book of the same name, focuses on the men who raised the flag in the famous photograph on Iwo Jima during the second World War.  Eastwood has turned into one of the finest directors in the world over the last decade with masterpieces like Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and Gran Torino, and I was very eager to see what his take on a war film would be like.  Flags was made alongside Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima - which focuses on the Japanese perspective on the battle – and the two serve as companion pieces to one another.  I haven’t got to see Letters yet, but if it matches the storytelling of Flags, then I need to right away.

There are few Americans out there who haven’t seen the iconic photo of the Iwo Jima flag raising.  Flags of Our Fatherstells the story particularly of the men in the photo who went on to survive the battle – John ‘Doc’ Bradley (Ryan Phillippe), Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford) and Ira Hayes (Adam Beach).  When the photo captures the attention of the nation back home, these three surviving soldiers are pulled out of the Pacific theater and welcomed back to the States as heroes.  As they embark on a cross-country tour to sell bonds that will allow the military to complete the war effort, their consciences are torn by their newfound fame, as they know that their raising of the flag was a mostly insignificant event in a battle filled with real heroes – many of whom lie dead in the sands of Iwo Jima.

Eastwood’s film succeeds on multiple levels.  It reveals a moment in history that most of us have seen but few of us know the story to.  It examines the nature of heroism and bravery, and the incredible sacrifices that soldiers made during an iconic period in American history.  It probes the human heart by looking at the way that three very different friends deal with the same stresses and haunting memories.  It asks difficult questions about our political and military machine without ever turning into a preachy political movie.  Perhaps more than anything else, though, it pulls back the curtain on the American soldier and lets us see someone who is very much like us.  This is not a war movie populated by faceless uniforms who serve as fodder for explosions, but rather a human drama about the people caught up in such extraordinary circumstances.  Flags may be the most personal war movie I’ve ever seen, and I was riveted by every moment.  Expertly paced and structured, emotional without being melodramatic, and understated in all the right ways in service of the story (a largely everyman cast and Eastwood’s beautifully minimalistic score, to name a couple), Flags of Our Fathers is a great piece of cinema that would be a great choice for anyone who wants to see a movie this weekend that truly honors the many aspects of the burden our nation’s soldiers have faced. – **** (out of 4)

Flags of Our Fathers is rated R for sequences of graphic war violence and carnage, and for language.

Friday’s Featured Film – 1/29/10

D.J. Williams | January 29, 2010 in Movies | Comments (3)

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roadNew movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Road to Perdition

With 2010 kicking off a brand new decade, everybody and their mother has been putting out a “best of the decade” list for every imaginable category.  IGN, a great entertainment website, is in the midst of making their picks for the best movies and video games of the past ten years, listing a top ten for each individual year before compiling the best of the best.  As I read through their list, it’s been fun to think back about some real gems that I haven’t revisited in a while.  One of those films is Sam Mendes’ superb 2002 drama Road to Perdition, one of my personal favorites.  A great story of fathers and sons rounded out by an absolutely stellar cast, this is a movie that should be required viewing for any film fan.

Set in the Capone mob era of 1930′s Illinois, Road to Perdition tells the story of Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks), an enforcer for Irish-American boss John Rooney (Paul Newman in his final onscreen role).  The orphaned Sullivan was taken in as a boy by Rooney, whose fatherly provision helped Sullivan to establish a life and family of his own, with his seedy work hidden away from his two sons.  One night, his curious older son Michael Jr. stows away in his car on a job, only to witness his dad’s partner, Rooney’s son Connor (Daniel Craig), gun down a man in cold blood.  Worried that the boy will spill the secret, Connor comes after him and forces the two Sullivans to flee for their lives.  With a psychopathic hitman (Jude Law) dispatched by the mob to take them out, the elder Sullivan must find a way to keep his son alive and end the cycle of violence, giving his son a chance at a good life. 

While you could certainly describe Road to Perditionas a mob movie, this certainly isn’t Goodfellas or The Untouchables in tone or subject matter.  The focus here is intensely personal, exploring the nature of the relationship between fathers and sons and the toll that violence takes on the human soul.  Essentially, this this a movie about three sets of fathers and sons – the two Sullivans, the two Rooneys, and the adoptive father-son relationship between Hanks and Newman’s characters.  Each relationship explores a different dynamic, and they all add to an emotional climax that cuts to the core at what it means to be a father.  With such a focus on characters, it goes without saying that the film is only as strong as its cast – and in this case, that’s high praise.  All the heavy-hitters are in top form here, with a supporting cast of character actors like Stanley Tucci and Ciaran Hinds rounding things out and providing a cast of characters that feels truly authentic.  The source material for the movie is taken from a graphic novel, and cinematographer Conrad L. Hall (also his final film) does a beautiful job of lighting and framing each shot to create a visual masterpiece that sets the tone for the film’s action and is a subtle treat for the eyes.  Composer Thomas Newman’s score is beautiful and deeply haunting.  Mendes ties it all together in a pitch-perfect package.  There’s really not anything negative that I can say about this movie.  If I were to compile a ten-best of the decade, Road to Perdition would certainly be on it.  If you haven’t seen it, it should be at the front of your to-watch list.  It’s a masterpiece in every sense of the word. – **** (out of 4)

Road to Perdition is rated R for violence and language.